DAVE POLLARD, QMI Agency

The Belfast Giants pro hockey team staged a coup earlier this month after discovering that new owner Christopher Knight is listed on a sex offenders registry in Florida.

The players, including 10 Canadians, and other staff walked away from their contracts with Knight and, through a series of legal wranglings with the company that operates the Giants' home arena, effectively started a new team with the same name.

Knight, who was charged in 2003 with lewd and lascivious battery -- it was alleged he had sex with a person between the ages of 12 and 15 -- told the Belfast Telegraph Thursday that he was put on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement website "inappropriately and we are in the process of getting that removed." He also insisted he still owns the team, something Giants general manager Todd Kelman, a 38-year-old from Calgary, disputes.